Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Casey vs. Kyle by Cindy Sheehan

US working-class soldier before his
short deployment to Iraq, Casey Sheehan

Casey and his Mom

This is
something that I don’t want to revisit—I never want to relive the worst
experience of my life. However, with the 11th anniversary of my
son’s death in Iraq on 04/04/04 approaching and the new “blockbuster” infecting
movie screens around the world, I really must get this off of my chest.

Most citizens
of this nation are without a doubt addicted to wars and war “heroes” without
stopping for more than a few cursory seconds to count the costs or evaluate the
propaganda. I despair that a movie like American
Sniper grossed over 105 million at the box office over the weekend where we
are supposed to be commemorating the birth of a man of peace, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.

Everything in
American Sniper is taken for fact
when the author and focus Chris Kyle already had been proven to have been a
blowhard and a liar, when the facts and political motivations of Selma are being questioned.

As is the US
addicted to its wars, it is also addicted to lying about them and I know this
because I have my own case about Casey for proof.

We got the
news about Casey about 14 hours or so after his detail had been ambushed in
Iraq. After I lie on the floor screaming for I don’t know how long, the three
emissaries of death couldn’t really tell us much except that he was Killed In
Action (KIA)—I still can’t see a KIA brand car without my heart sinking.

Since Casey’s
murder, I have found out so much about the US military I had no idea about, but
when a group of troops (Battalion? Unit? Army? Murder?) get deployed to combat, some
stay back as “Funeral Duty.” Two such persons came to Casey’s funeral and
regaled us with stories about what a wonderful mechanic he was and how he had
“volunteered” to go on the mission that killed him. Even though neither story
rang true to me, I absorbed them like a dry sponge (as I was from all the tears
I shed) wanting to hang on to some news of my son because he had only been
there in Iraq a few days before he was killed. We didn’t even know he was
stationed at Camp War Eagle right in the heart
of Sadr City, Baghdad.

Casey had joined
the Army in the year 2000 for college benefits and with the promise from his
lying recruiter that he could be a Chaplain’s Assistant. I knew from our many
conversations that Casey hated being a Humvee mechanic, but that was the only
MOS (military job) available when he got to boot camp.

Also, the
very final time he was home (oh, how I wish I knew for sure it was the final
time, I would have carried out my half-joking threat to run him with my car
just enough to disable him) at Christmas of 2003, he told everyone he was just
going to “do his job” and come home safely because, as a Christian and gentle
man, he could “never kill anyone.” All of this didn’t jibe at all with Casey
“volunteering.”

By drips and
drabs, the truth came out. Much has been written with the Imperial spin about
04/04/04 in Sadr City—about how the First Cavalry (Casey’s unit, or whatever)
was attacked by the residents of Sadr City, but from unembedded journalists we
have found out that the 1st Cav went out to provoke a response to
show the residents who was “in charge now." April 4th was also right
after the mercenaries of Blackwater had provoked the residents of Fallujah into
an uprising that resulted in the highly publicized deaths of several
mercenaries.

Four years
after Casey died, I received an email from one of his buddies who was right
next to him on that fateful evening.

The vet
started his email with, “Sheehan was a great guy, but he was a lousy mechanic.”
Which made me smile, because it rang true, but then he delivered the coup de
gras:

“I don’t know why you keep telling everyone it was
Bush’s fault, it was Sgt. (Name withheld by me)’s fault. He made your son go on
that mission and in fact told him to ‘get your goddamn ass on that truck’ after
Sheehan had said, ‘no, I am not going, I am only a mechanic.’”

Even though I
sobbed when I read that, I knew it was true. Casey knew he could
never kill anyone and to me he is far more of a hero for not wanting to kill
than is Chris Kyle for his self-proclaimed "more than 250" murders of what he called “savages.”

How much
courage does it really take for a sniper to be given co-ordinates from a
spotter and then firing from hundreds of yards away? To me that is the
definition of cowardice even forgetting about the lies that got both Casey and
Kyle to Iraq and the ones who made billions in profits while Casey died
thousands of miles away from his loving home and a vet with PTSD would
ironically end up murdering Kyle back here in the states.

I will always
be proud of my son who is a grand hero to me for refusing orders in the heat of
battle and ashamed by a cold-blooded killer like Kyle and a nation that lifts
him up as the standard of heroism. I find it supremely ironic and sad that NOT
being a killer is frowned upon here while being a happy killer makes one a
best-selling author and garners all kinds of award nominations and ticket sales
for those who wish to exploit this nation’s bloodlust.

This truly
makes me wonder if there is any hope to end the evil of US empire, or are we
doomed to “wash, rinse, and repeat” these stories of infamy and tragedy over
and over again until the USA collapses from the weight of all the carnage.

1 comment:

So Sorry Cindy. Stay strong, persevere, and in the end you will see Casey again. I met you in SF when there were only 1500 boots representing those killed in Action. I am sorry that so, so, many more have been KIA. As a Catholic Christian I will pray for you, Casey, and your family, even though I know it is likely Casey went straight to heaven, to suffer no more. The human cost of war, incalculable. You raised him well. Stay strong, faithful, know not easy. Kathy

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Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox is an independent online radio show and blog that strives to be completely free from establishment political ideology and focus on a message of peace, justice, environmental sustainability and economic equality. To this end, we provide educational and inspirational programs on topics related to these issues and we organize/promote actions working towards peace, justice, and environmental sustainability.